1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to means for insect control. More particularly, the present invention relates to a microbe-mediated method of attracting mosquitoes for control purposes or for destroying mosquitoes.
2. Description of Related Art
Insect control has been in great demand throughout human history. It is necessary to control harmful insects like mosquitoes, to prevent the spread of disease, such as malaria and yellow fever. Public health authorities everywhere have expended intense effort on eliminating mosquito-related disease; however, this effort has not been wholly successful, largely because of the difficulty of eliminating mosquitoes. In addition to eliminating mosquito-related disease, another reason for eliminating mosquitoes is abatement of the nuisance caused by mosquito bites. Therefore, there has been a perennial call for means of effective mosquito control, including means to attract, capture, or destroy active mosquitoes.
Female mosquitoes seek a human host from which they obtain a blood meal for egg development. Mosquitoes locate hosts through a combination of chemicals characteristic of the hosts. It is believed that the volatiles emanating from the human host are responsible for the attractant. These volatiles contain 300-400 compounds and originate from either the secretions of skin glands, or the decomposition of the skin microflora, or both. The mosquitoes use their olfactory structures to detect the attractant from as far away as 90 meters.
Current methods of control only attack the mosquito population as a whole by chemical means or seek to remove their breeding sites. These methods are cumbersome, labor-intensive and often disruptive, in that they may introduce dangerous amounts of toxic chemicals into the environment. Some other attempts have been made to construct mosquito traps. For trapping mosquitoes, light, warmth, carbon dioxide, octenol, water vapor and lactic acid have all been used as attractants.
The invention provides a method for controlling mosquitoes by attracting mosquitoes using bacterial decomposition and yeast fermentation products as the attractants for blood-feeding female mosquitoes and for non-host seeking mosquitoes respectively. This invention has combined heat and simulating attractants to achieve a highly efficient attraction. Furthermore, this invention is coupled with an attractant releasing mechanism, which enhances the release of the mosquito baits into the environment. The invention also comprises methods for trapping mosquitoes for control purposes or for destroying mosquitoes after attracting them.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for generating the mosquito bait, as well as simulating the human body""s surface temperature and emanated odor. A well-controlled heating assembly can be used to generate a suitable thermal gradient for incubating both microorganisms and evaporating the bait. The release of the bait can be further enhanced by a bait-releasing unit. The bait comprises at least the bacterial decomposition and the yeast fermentation solution. The bait is not poisonous to human beings and produces mosquito attractants from natural products of fermentation or decomposition. This invention can also combine with electrocution grids or insecticide webs to destroy gathered mosquitoes.
As embodied and broadly described herein, the present invention provides a portable mosquito controlling system for trapping mosquitoes, for use indoors or outdoors, the system comprising an upper compartment including a plurality of channels for admitting and trapping mosquitoes; a bottom compartment; and a thumbscrew container for connecting the upper compartment and the bottom compartment. The thumbscrew container includes at least an upper thumbscrew, a bottom thumbscrew and a grid between the upper thumbscrew and the bottom thumbscrew. The mosquito controlling system further comprises a first fixture for holding a first bottle containing at least a yeast fermentation, a second fixture for holding a second bottle containing at least a microbe culture and controllable heating means for generating heat for the microbe culture and the yeast fermentation.
As embodied and broadly described herein, the present invention further includes a bait-releasing unit for boosting the release of the bait into the environment. The bait-releasing unit mainly utilizes spraying mechanisms for spreading the bait as finely droplets (i.e. mist) into the environment. Therefore, the diffuse rate and evaporation rate of the bait in a certain space is increased, thus enhancing efficiency of the mosquito bait and increasing the effective distance for attracting mosquitoes.
The bait-releasing unit comprises at least a spray nozzle and a pump. The spray nozzle includes an inner tube and an outer tube. The outer tube, acting like a siphon, can suck up (siphon) the liquid outside the spray nozzle to a top of the spray nozzle. Air or gas is pumped into the outer tube by the pump and then is ejected out in high speed from a top hole of the inner tube, so that the liquid bait can be sprayed out as fine droplet (i.e. mist), thus boosting diffusion and evaporation of the bait.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.